Water rationing list announced
Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, Greater Taichung and Greater Tainan are to start first-stage water rationing on Monday, the Water Resources Agency announced yesterday.
Water pressure in the aforementioned areas will be reduced between 11pm and 5am, the agency said, adding that the measure will have minimal impact on household users.
Meanwhile, Taoyuan County and Linkou District (林口), in New Taipei City are to start nighttime water rationing tomorrow, ahead of other counties in the nation, the agency said.
Apple beats HTC in Taiwan
Apple Inc overtook HTC Corp (宏達電) as the top smartphone seller in the nation last month, thanks to higher sales of its new iPhone 6 models.
A total of 870,000 smartphones were sold in Taiwan last month, up 19 percent from a month ago, and nearly one in every four of them — 23.6 percent — was an iPhone, according to statistics released yesterday by industry sources.
HTC, which was the nation’s leader in market share by units the previous five months, came in second with a 16.9 percent share, followed by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, with a 14.3 percent share.
In terms of sales value, Apple enjoyed an even bigger share of 46.6 percent, ahead of HTC’s 13.6 percent, data showed. Samsung was third at 13.3 percent, followed by Japan-based Sony Mobile at 11.6 percent.
FIH Mobile predicts profit jump
FIH Mobile Ltd (富智康), a handset maker spun off from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) in 2000, yesterday said that net profit for this year would increase by between 80 percent and 100 percent from US$77.28 million a year ago, and gross margin would exceed 6 percent this year compared with 4.5 percent last year, mainly due to operational efficiency.
Daiwa Securities Capital Markets Inc, which has a “buy” rating on FIH Mobile and a six-month price target of HK$5.40, expects the company to remain a major supplier to Chinese handset vendors, especially Xiaomi Corp (小米).
Chailease profit slid last month
Chailease Holding Co (中租控股), the nation’s top leasing services provider, yesterday reported net income of NT$544.8 million (US$17.6 million) for last month, down 4.3 percent from a year earlier and 9.2 percent from the previous month.
Despite last month’s drop, cumulative profit for the first 10 months of the year still rose 17 percent annually to NT$5.67 billion, or earnings per share of NT$5.18, Chailease said in a statement.
Capital Securities Corp (群益金鼎證券) forecast the company would post a full-year profit of NT$7.32 billion, or NT$6.68 in earnings per share, and NT$8.57 billion for next year, or NT$7.83 per share, citing the company’s stable business in Taiwan and stronger growth in China.
Hypermarkets face competition
Hypermarkets in Taiwan are facing rising competition from both convenience stores and supermarkets, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry said hypermarket operators need to transform their operating strategies to face the competition, with hypermarket sales accounting for 16.3 percent of total retail sales in the nation last year, down from 20.3 percent in 2001.
Meanwhile, convenience stores accounted for 26.2 percent of total revenue in the retail sector last year and supermarkets made up 15.1 percent, the ministry’s Department of Statistics said in a statement.
The department said that the rising trend of online shopping and the barriers in establishing new branches are also affecting the survival of hypermarkets in the nation.
Many hypermarkets have been promoting online shopping services to face the challenges, the department said.
Hong Kong exports rise slightly
Hong Kong’s exports increased moderately over a year earlier last month, as weak demand in the EU and Japan for products shipped through the Chinese territory was offset by increased shipments to the US and other Asian markets.
Shipments rose 2.7 percent year-on-year to US$331.7 billion, the Hong Kong government said in a statement yesterday, while imports also rose 5.6 percent last month from a year earlier to US$381.6 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of US$49.8 billion last month, it said.
A government spokesman said the performance of Hong Kong’s exports in the near term will likely continue to be constrained by the modest expansion of the global economy, against the backdrop of the lack of growth in the eurozone and Japan, as well as geopolitical tensions in various parts of the world.
MediaTek still supplying Xiaomi
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s biggest handset chip supplier, yesterday dismissed recent speculation that it has stopped supplying chips to Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi Corp (小米) after news that Xiaomi recently formed a joint venture with Chinese chip designer Leadcore Technology Co (聯芯科技).
“The speculations are baseless. Our partnership with Xioami is intact,” company spokesman David Ku (顧大為) said by telephone.
Ku said MediaTek would continue to supply its technologies, chips and resources to Xiomi in the future. MediaTek supplies chips for Xiaomi’s Hongmi and Hongmi Note phones.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last